


little changes

by bellpickle



Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: Babies, Children, Established Relationship, M/M, Same-Sex Marriage
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-17
Updated: 2013-09-27
Packaged: 2017-12-26 21:05:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/970287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellpickle/pseuds/bellpickle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of ficlets on Noiz and Aoba's adventures in fatherhood. (Noiz-centric)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. thirteen

Emmi was skimming through her class notes at her study desk when she heard a knock on the door. She tugged out the headphones plugging her ears and before she could even finish saying, “Come in!” the door had already swung open. Her dad stepped into her room looking unusually excited. Her eyes widened upon spotting the familiar object clutched in his hands.

“Look what I found while cleaning the attic,” Noiz said, holding up the fluffy pink bunny ears. He patted it a few times to shake off the remaining bits of dust then offered it to her.

“I totally forgot we still had this!” Emmi said. She accepted the headband and turned it over in her hands. She gave each end of the headband a few light tugs, and upon confirming that it was still quite flexible, she carefully slipped it onto her head. She expected for the ends of the headband to painfully squeeze at her temples, but to her surprise, it fit rather comfortably.

“Look, dad! I can still wear it!”

Noiz smiled, his eyes lighting up.

Emmi turned back to her desk and picked up the hand mirror sitting at the edge of it. She brought the mirror to her face and inspected her reflection. With her free hand, she pushed back a tuft of long blue hair and then reached up to fondle the slightly wilted tips of the bunny ears. “I must have had a big head as a kid if this still fits me even now.”

She placed the mirror back down on her desk and swiveled her chair back towards her dad. She froze, her face falling upon seeing her dad’s coil staring down at her from just a few feet away, the machine making a soft clicking noise as it switched to camera mode. She immediately ripped the bunny ears off her head. “Geez, dad! Can you not?”

Noiz frowned as his daughter glared at him through his coil’s display screen. “What’s wrong? I thought you liked taking pictures.”

“Not while I’m wearing embarrassing kiddy stuff!” Emmi said, exasperated. She crossed her arms and huffed, blushing faintly.

Noiz lowered his coil to his waist and fixed his daughter with a sad expression. “I just wanted something to remember this moment by. But if you really don’t want to…” His eyes fell to the floor, his shoulders sagging pitifully.

Emmi felt the seeds of guilt begin to blossom in her chest. Her dad was always so sappy and sentimental when it came to this kind of stuff. Deciding to indulge him just a bit, she reluctantly put the bunny ears back onto her head. “Don’t go crazy, okay? Just one photo.”

In the blink of an eye, Noiz perked up and had his coil poised and ready. “I’ll take the picture on three.”

As her dad counted aloud, Emmi stared down at her fingers tangled in her lap, her flushed cheeks much more prominent now. Once she heard the snap of the shutter, she quickly removed the headband and tried to return it to her dad. A few moments passed before Emmi realized her dad was preoccupied with something on his coil. “Dad?” she asked and shook the headband to get his attention.

A few more seconds passed in silence before Noiz’s mouth suddenly curved into a proud smirk. “There,” he said, in a way that made Emmi immediately suspicious.

“Dad,” she said, slitting her eyes at him, “What did you just do?”

“I uploaded the picture to the virtual family album,” Noiz replied, as though it were obvious.

Emmi’s jaw dropped in horror. “What?! Please _please_ don’t tell me you tagged me!”

Noiz blinked. “…Should I not have?”

“Dad!” Emmi’s mortification increased tenfold. “Now all my friends from school are going to see it too! Geez, why do you have to be so _embarrassing_!”

The words hit Noiz like a punch in the gut. Before he knew it, Emmi had scooted him out of her room and slammed the door shut.

—————

Aoba was sitting in front of his laptop composing an email to his grandmother when he heard Noiz puncture the silence with yet another long, drawn-out sigh. He turned his neck and peered at him from over his shoulder. Noiz was sprawled on their bed, his legs lazily falling over the bottom edge. He was staring up at the ceiling with an expression that screamed _I’m sad, pay attention to me_.

Aoba made his over to the bed, the mattress dipping slightly as he sat atop it. “Something wrong?” Aoba asked, using his fingertips to brush the bangs from Noiz’s forehead.

Noiz bit his bottom lip and let out a sad little puff of air from his nose. “Emmi said that I embarrass her and then kicked me out of her room.”

Despite his husband’s morose disposition, Aoba couldn’t help but smile a little. It was interesting, seeing a wealthy 38-year old businessman so affected by the whims of a preteen girl. “Well, she’s at that age. It’s not unusual for her to want some space.”

“I know,” Noiz replied, but continued pouting as if to say _I know, but I’m still upset_.

Aoba paused for a long moment to think, then said, “It’s not as though she never wants to spend time with us. She still goes to the movies with us every Friday night and she usually spends all of Sunday with us too. That’s much better than a lot of other kids her age.”

Noiz stopped to consider his words, his expression softening. “I guess that’s true.”

Aoba chuckled and leaned down to peck him on the cheek, then returned to his desk and left Noiz to his thoughts.

—————

Noiz yawned and shuffled to the bathroom nearest the master bedroom. He froze upon seeing Emmi standing in front of the sink, brushing her teeth in her silky pink pajamas. Nervous that his daughter might still be annoyed with him, he began to retreat from the doorway, but stopped when Emmi caught sight of his reflection on the bathroom mirror. She took a small step to the side, as though to make space for him at the sink.

The tension in Noiz’s shoulders eased a bit as he took his place beside her. He grabbed his toothbrush from its container near the faucet and was careful to grab the tube of plain toothpaste. The pink glitter toothpaste belonged exclusively to Emmi, who furrowed her brows and cutely puffed her cheeks like an angry blowfish when he even so much as touched her special princess glitter toothpaste—an artifact from her childhood that she was still unable to let go of.

“Did you finish all your homework?” Noiz asked as he squeezed a glob of toothpaste onto the bristles of his toothbrush.

Emmi spat and washed the spittle down the drain before answering. “Yup. I finished writing my article draft for the school newspaper too.”

As Noiz began to brush his teeth, Emmi rinsed her mouth and washed her brush, then stood on the tips of her toes to give Noiz a kiss on the cheek. “Good night, dad.”

Noiz felt the weight in his chest lift then dissipate all together. After he finished brushing, he made his way to Emmi’s room in order to say good night in return. He knocked lightly on the door, and upon receiving no response, he slowly creaked the door open and peeked inside. Emmi was already asleep on her bed. She had left the lights in her room open and had a couple notebooks laid out at the foot of the mattress.

Noiz started to put the notebooks away when he spotted the bunny headband in the corner of his eyes. Emmi had carefully placed it on her bedstand, right between her alarm clock and the framed photo of the three of them at the water park on her 5th birthday.

Noiz felt a sweet stinging sensation at the corners of his eyes. Setting the notebooks aside, he blinked the moisture away and tucked Emmi into bed. She stirred slightly from the sudden movement and Noiz kissed her on the forehead to calm her.

He turned to give her once last look before flipping the light switch and closing the door shut behind him.


	2. five

“Come on, Emmi. It’s time for bed.” Noiz stooped down to lift the small child up by the waist, but she easily squirmed out of his grasp.

For the past few hours, Emmi had been rooted to her spot just a few feet away from the television screen watching a marathon of her favorite show, a cartoon about an anthropomorphic rubber duck and her fellow rubber toy friends. Emmi had forced him to watch the show with her, but even after viewing several episodes, he still could not even begin to comprehend the bizarre cartoon. In contrast, Emmi had been so engrossed that Noiz had managed to slip a pair of pink bunny ears onto her head without her noticing.

Aoba had been gone for the past week visiting his friends and family in Midorijima. He would be returning from the airport in a couple hours, though Noiz knew that Aoba would be upset with him if he didn’t have Emmi in bed by the time he arrived.

Deciding to emulate his husband, Noiz put his hands on his hips and tried to look intimidating. “Emmi,” he said, a hint of warning in his voice, “You know that Papa doesn’t like when you stay up late.”

Noiz hoped that mentioning Aoba would be enough to convince his daughter to willingly drag herself away from the TV. Instead, Emmi hugged her knees to her chest, a stubborn crease appearing between her brows. Her eyes remained glued to the screen in defiance.

Noiz sighed. Resigning himself to more forceful methods of coercion, Noiz grabbed the remote control from the coffee table and shut the television off, then placed the remote on a high shelf that Emmi was unable to reach.

When the screen abruptly cut to black, Emmi’s face immediately snapped towards him. She wore a look of utter betrayal before her expression quickly transformed to one of anger. She knit her brows together and puffed her cheeks, then began to wildly flap her arms around like some strange flightless bird. Noiz couldn’t help but laugh at her odd little display, which only made Emmi angrier.

“Daddyyy, just one more episode,” Emmi whined. She dramatically threw herself onto the floor and pounded her tiny fists against it.

“No, Emmi. You have to go to sleep now or else Papa will get mad.” _Mad at me more than you_ , Noiz dryly thought.

“But I’m not sleepy,” Emmi said with a pout.

Noiz took Emmi’s hands in his and literally dragged her the short distance over to the couch. He sat and then picked Emmi up and plopped her squarely onto his lap. She tried to wriggle away, but Noiz secured her by folding his hands over her stomach, hugging her small body close to his chest.

“Do you want me to tell you a bedtime story?” Noiz asked.

Emmi merely crossed her arms in response. He peeked down at her face and saw that she was still wearing the same grumpy expression from earlier. The fluffy bunny ear accessory was lightly nuzzling the underside of Noiz’s chin; he was amazed that the headband was still neatly sitting on her head despite all her thrashing.

He leaned back in his seat, sinking into the leather cushion. He didn’t actually know any real bedtime stories, so he resorted to making them up at the top of his head. As a result, the plotlines of his stories were rarely coherent, but Emmi wasn’t one to criticize.

“Once upon a time,” Noiz began, “There was a little rabbit that lived in a grassy meadow.”

“Why is it always a rabbit?” Emmi complained.

Noiz ignored the interjection and continued, “Unlike the other rabbits, this little rabbit was scared of the dark. He was even too afraid to go into the dark rabbit hole and join all the other rabbits. So he stayed in the meadow above all by himself. When it was nighttime, the little rabbit was so scared that he couldn’t even move. He would just roll up into a ball and sleep until the sun rose again.”

“Where were the rabbit’s parents?” Emmi murmured. She yawned and seeing it made Noiz yawn too.

“They were in the rabbit hole with everyone else. Everyone thought the little rabbit was strange and so they all left him alone, even the rabbit’s family. But one day, just before the sun was about to set again, another rabbit suddenly came out from the rabbit hole to keep the little rabbit company. And with the second rabbit by his side, the little rabbit realized that nighttime wasn’t so scary after all.”

By the time Noiz got to the part where the two rabbits fell in love and got married, Emmi’s eyes were half-lidded and her head was lolled back, resting against Noiz’s chest. When he got to the part where the two rabbits had a baby girl rabbit, who was objectively the cutest baby girl rabbit in the whole world, Emmi was already fast asleep.

Noiz knew that he should get up and carry Emmi to her room, but he was starting to feel a little tired himself. It would probably be about another hour until Aoba returned, so in the meantime, it was fine for him to rest his eyes a little. With that last thought, Noiz allowed his eyelids to fall.

—————

“I’m home!” Aoba called as he shut the door behind him. The house was silent. Figuring that Noiz and Emmi were already asleep, Aoba kicked off his shoes and hauled his luggage through the house. He stopped once he reached the living room and spotted someone sitting on the couch. Upon closer inspection, Aoba realized it was in fact _two_ someones; Emmi was asleep on Noiz’s lap, her head leaning so far to the side that she would have surely slid off of Noiz’s chest if he hadn’t been holding her around the waist.

Aoba left his luggage sitting at the living room entrance and quietly tiptoed over to them. He gently pried Emmi from out of Noiz’s embrace and rested her head against his shoulder. She stirred just long enough to squint and whisper, “Papa,” then she circled her arms around his neck and fell asleep once more.

With his free arm, Aoba shook Noiz’s shoulder. After a few shakes, Noiz let out a low groan and sluggishly opened his eyes. He blinked up at Aoba in confusion.

Aoba smiled. “If you don’t want to sleep on the couch all night, then get your butt to bed.” He turned away without waiting for a response and walked towards the staircase, laying a soft kiss onto Emmi’s forehead as he made his way up to her bedroom.


	3. ten

“Look, you guys! Emmi’s wearing that stupid backpack again!”

Emmi quickened her pace, not bothering to address the boy who yelled the teasing remark at her back. She scowled when she heard the sound of footsteps quickly approaching her from behind. A few seconds later, Hans’s freckled face and curly red hair appeared at the periphery of her vision. She couldn’t see it, but she could tell from the tone of his voice that he had a repugnant grin on his face.

“Why do you wear that stupid baby backpack?”

Hans tried to reach out and touch it, but Emmi smacked his hand away before it could make contact. “It’s not stupid,” she said, making no attempt to hide her aggravation. “And babies don’t wear backpacks, you dummy.”

The students in their vicinity all snickered at the insult. Hans glared at the onlookers, which only made them laugh at him more openly. Flustered, Hans turned back to Emmi and snapped, “Only little babies would wear a bunny backpack instead of a regular backpack like everyone else!”

Emmi tightened her grip on the straps of her bag. The floppy bunny ears that bordered the sides of the perfectly round bunny face on her back bounced in time to her steps. She continued to stare straight ahead, refusing to look Hans in the eye. “I don’t care what you think. I like it and I’m going to keep wearing it.” She quickened her pace once more until she finally reached the school’s front doors. She threw them open, wincing as a blast of wind from outside slammed into her small body in one huge gust.

She stepped outside and scanned the parking lot for her dad’s car. She frowned upon realizing that her dad had yet to arrive, the frown only deepening when Hans’s irritating voice piped up once more.

“Why do you like that stupid backpack so much anyway?”

Emmi gasped when she felt a pair of hands roughly push the middle of her back. She caught herself before she could fall forward, and then immediately whipped around to glare at her attacker. “What’s your problem, you big dummy! Why won’t you just leave me alone?!”

Hans returned the glare. His cheeks seemed a little pink, though Emmi figured that his face just got red when he was angry, like in the cartoons.

“ _You’re_ the one who keeps calling me a dummy!” Hans retorted.

“That’s because you keep acting like one!”

“W-well, you keep wearing dumb baby stuff! Of course people are going to make fun of you!”

Finally fed up, Emmi grabbed Hans by the collar of his shirt and roughly tugged him towards her. She balled her free hand into a fist and brought it close to Hans’s face. “If you don’t shut up, then I’m gonna make you _cry_ like a baby, you jerk!”

Hans just gaped at her in response, as though frozen. His lip was trembling slightly and there were tears gathering in his eyes. Satisfied, Emmi released her hold on him then turned to face the parking lot once more, intent on ignoring the boy.

Emmi rolled her eyes as she heard Hans sniffling behind her. She barely caught the sound of him mumbling, “Why are you so mean to me?” under his breath.

A second later, Emmi felt a strong tug at her back and her world literally went tumbling down. It took a couple seconds for Emmi to gather what had happened. She was now sitting on her butt, which was sore from the fall. There was also a sharp pain at her elbow, which had scraped against the pavement on the way down. She heard a loud gasp and looked up at Hans. Her eyes widened when she spotted what was in his hands.

One of the bunny ears from her backpack sat twisted in his palms, the strip of fabric torn clean off from the body of the bag. Emmi pushed herself off the floor, her eyes glued to the appendage.

Hans’s face was stricken with panic and some other, sadder emotion. “I… I didn’t mean to! I just grabbed it, and it just…” He guiltily stretched out his hands and offered the ear to her.

Emmi gingerly reached out to retrieve it. She had only had the backpack for a month and it was already ruined. It wasn’t available anywhere else; her parents had paid for a local manufacturer to have the bag custom-made for her, at her request. She remembered that when she pulled it out from the gift box on the night of her tenth birthday, her dad almost seemed more excited about the gift than she herself was. He had even taken pictures of her wearing the bag when she was getting ready for school the next morning.

Emmi thought about how disappointed her parents were going to be when they saw the bag literally ripped to pieces, and her body seemed to move on its own. She slapped Hans across the face, her hand cracking as loud as a whip as it made contact with the boy’s cheek. Tears welled up in her eyes and she fought to keep them from falling.

After the initial shock of the slap passed, all traces of regret disappeared from Hans’s expression. “ _You’re_ the one with a problem! Crying over a backpack! You really _are_ a baby!”

Emmi had half a mind to slap him again, but before she had the chance to, a considerably taller person got to him first.

Unfortunately for Hans, Noiz had pulled into the entrance of the school just in time to see him shove Emmi to the ground. Gritting his teeth, he shifted his car into neutral and abandoned it right in the middle of the parking lot, much to the annoyance of all the other parents maneuvering their way in and out of the cramped lot.

He grabbed the little brat by the collar of his shirt, lifting him a good three feet off the ground. “Who is this little shit?!” Noiz growled.

Hans let out a high-pitched yelp, his legs futilely kicking air. He grabbed Noiz’s wrist to keep himself from choking.

Emmi wiped the tears from her eyes and she jumped up-and-down, her fists balled to her chest. “Yeah, daddy, beat him up!!”

After several shouted warnings from two members of the school’s security, Noiz finally released the child, and by that time, Hans had practically gone catatonic from fear.

Once safely inside their car, Emmi finally allowed herself to cry over her broken backpack. Noiz used his palm to soothingly rub circles against her back and reassured her that they would be able to get it sewn back up in no time.

Later that night, Aoba and Noiz received several angry phone calls from both the school administration and the parents of the child Noiz had harassed. After a lengthy sermon and several apology kisses (as well as some apology more-than-kisses in the late-night privacy of their bedroom), Aoba made Noiz promise that he would attend the weekly PTA meetings for the next month—the worst punishment of all.


	4. six

Noiz rolled onto his back and groaned softly as he was awoken by a knock on the door. He glanced at the clock on the bedside, which read a little before seven AM.

“Daddyyyy,” Emmi called from the other side of it. “Papaaaaa.”

Noiz felt Aoba shift beside him. Noiz turned to look at him and the both of them spent a few seconds blinking the sleep from their eyes before Aoba whispered, “Are you getting up or am I?”

After a moment’s deliberation, Noiz sat up with a resigned sigh. Aoba murmured a “thank you” as Noiz shuffled over to his drawers to hop into a pair of boxers. With slow, lazy movements, he made his way over to the bathroom and donned his green robe, loosely tying it at the waist.

The knocks were growing more impatient. Without fail, Emmi always woke up at an absurdly early hour on weekends. She didn’t like being alone, especially during the winter when the sun rose late, so Noiz and Aoba took turns keeping her company each morning.

The door swung inwards as it opened. Emmi’s small balled-up fist hovered mid-knock. Her face brightened upon seeing Noiz. “Good morning, Daddy!” She raised her arms above her head and simply said, “Carry.”

Noiz lifted her up by the armpits and used his forearm to support the weight of her body. Emmi wrapped her arms around Noiz’s neck and asked, “Can I have the chocolate cereal for breakfast?”

Noiz yawned and nodded absentmindedly. He was considerably less fastidious about Emmi’s nutrition than Aoba was, a fact that Emmi often used to her advantage.

“Yay!” Emmi said, practically bouncing in Noiz’s arms in joy. In the kitchen, Noiz poured Emmi her bowl of cereal and munched on a couple oatmeal bars as she ate. Afterwards, as Noiz was washing her bowl, Emmi walked up to him and tugged on the hem of his bathrobe.

“Daddy, can you play castle with me?”

Noiz lifted a brow. “What’s castle?”

Emmi grinned cutely and Noiz’s chest warmed at the sight. “You have to play to find out!”

After Noiz dried the bowl off and stored it in the cabinet, Emmi took him by the hand and led him to her toy room. Sitting next to her toy box was a large piece of cardboard cut into the shape of a castle. Emmi ran over to it and pointed. “This is the castle. Papa and I made it yesterday.”

She threw open the lid of her toy box, grabbed a couple items from within, and plopped down in front of the cutout. She set the items onto the floor then patted the empty space across from her, indicating for Noiz to sit there. Noiz did as she directed, sitting cross-legged onto the floor.

Emmi picked one of the items off the floor. It was a toy crown with plastic gemstones embedded along the curve of its base. “This one’s mine,” she said, placing it onto her head. The remaining item was a wreath made of wire and artificial flowers. “This one is Daddy’s,” Emmi said, holding it in her hands. “I don’t have a tiara, so we have to use this instead.”

Noiz stiffened. “Why would I be wearing a tiara?”

Emmi giggled, as though it were a silly question to ask. “Because Daddy’s the princess! Princesses always wear tiaras.”

“What?!” Noiz sputtered. “Why am I the princess? Shouldn’t _you_ be the princess?”

“No, I’m the queen! That’s why I’m wearing the royal crown.” Emmi let out an exasperated sigh.

Noiz bit his lip. He didn’t know why he cared so much, but playing a princess was just… He eyed the flower wreath and gulped. “Can’t I be a prince?” he asked, pouting slightly.

“No, I already made Papa the prince yesterday. You have to be the princess!” Deciding that that was the end of the conversation, Emmi pushed herself off the floor and crossed the short distance separating them. She lifted the wreath and gestured for him to lower his head.

Noiz warily peered through the gap in the doorway. He hadn’t heard any activity outside of the room, which likely meant that Aoba was still asleep. Reluctantly, Noiz bowed his head and allowed Emmi to bestow the wreath. It was several inches too small and so sat awkwardly atop his head. Coupled with his unkempt hair and green bathrobe, Noiz was certain he looked ridiculous. He felt the heat of a blush begin to warm his cheeks.

“Daddyyy,” Emmi whined, stomping her feet in dismay.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“You’re a princess now! You can’t sit like a boy!”

Noiz looked down at himself. He was leaning back with his palms against the floor, his legs still crossed and his boxers poking out from underneath his robe. He sat up straight and sheepishly asked, “How am I supposed to sit?”

“Like this.” Emmi sat down with her knees bent and her calves neatly tucked underneath her. She daintily placed her hands on her thighs.

Noiz emulated her movements and once his posture perfectly mimicked hers, Emmi nodded her approval.

“Okay, Princess Daddy! It’s time for afternoon tea with our friends!” Emmi ran back to her toy box and grabbed her plastic tea set, as well as a couple of dolls and teddy bears.

Unbeknownst to Noiz, Aoba had woken up some time ago and was now using his coil to snap pictures of him through the doorway. He snuck back to the kitchen and immediately uploaded the photos to their family album, and placed them all under a new subfolder titled, “Queen Emmi and Princess Noiz.”

Worst of all, when Noiz looked at the uploaded photos upon finding out, he saw that Koujaku had snidely commented, “Now we know who Emmi got her pretty looks from.”

To which Noiz replied, “Stay away from my daughter, you pedo,” triggering the start of yet another comment war between the two of them.

The next day, when Emmi and Aoba returned from their weekly grocery shopping trip, Emmi excitedly ran all over the house yelling, “Daddyyy! Where are you?”

Noiz popped his head out from the doorway of the master bedroom and Emmi ran over to him. “Look what Papa and I bought at the toy store!” Emmi reached into the plastic bag she was carrying. Noiz blanched upon seeing the item she was referring to.

It was a pink princess tiara.


	5. three

Noiz lounged on the living room couch and watched with a bemused smile as Emmi engaged in her semi-regular Saturday afternoon ritual of harassing Ren. She was currently mounted atop Ren’s back, which was only just big enough to support the weight of her body. She leaned forward and circled her arms around his neck, her chin resting on the crown of his head.

“Pony go faster!” Emmi said with an emphatic hop. Ren wordlessly followed her command and increased his walking pace so that it was just above the speed of a leisurely stroll. Emmi’s knees dragged along the carpet as he walked.

“Faster,” Emmi repeated and emphasized the order with another bounce. Ren let out a barely audible sigh. At this point, Noiz decided to relieve the beleaguered allmate and staged an intervention.

“Emmi,” Noiz said as he stood up from his seat, “Do you want to play hide-and-seek?”

She perked up at the offer. “Okay!” she answered and slid off Ren’s back a moment later. “Emmi hide first!”

She began to run towards the staircase, but abruptly stopped and ran back the way she came. Before Ren had the chance to escape, she scooped him up in her arms. “Doggy play too!” she said, then slowly made her way up the staircase, tripping a couple times along the way. Noiz started counting only once she reached the stairs’ summit, and soon afterwards, her and Ren’s little bodies disappeared from sight.

When he reached fifty, he stopped counting and made his way across the living room, deciding to use the staircase on the opposite end of the house. As suspected, Emmi was at her favorite hiding spot on the second floor: squished in the gap behind a large ceramic plant pot in a corner of the hallway. She was well-hidden from anyone approaching from the opposite end of the hallway, but from Noiz’s current vantage point, she was in plain sight.

Emmi was currently staring in the opposite direction, unaware of his presence at her back. She was still carrying Ren, who was also looking away from him. When he was only a few steps away, the floorboards creaked underfoot, giving away his position. Emmi immediately whipped around, and upon seeing him, she jumped into the air and screamed. She ran off a second later, her tiny feet loudly thudding through the hallway.

Their game of hide-and-seek having suddenly turned to a game of tag, Noiz grinned and gave chase. Before Emmi could even reach the staircase, Noiz grabbed her and swept her into his arms. Emmi screamed once more upon being caught, but it soon dissolved into peals of laughter. She had accidentally dropped Ren while she was running, who then took the opportunity to escape before Emmi could pick him up again.

At that moment, the door to the master bedroom swung open and Aoba stepped out into the hallway, shooting the both of them curious looks. He was dressed in a loose-fitting t-shirt and shorts, his hair still damp from his shower. “What’s going on out here?”

“Papa!” Emmi said. Noiz set her back down on the floor, and she ran over to Aoba, clinging to his leg. Aoba sweetly smiled down at her and ran his fingers through her hair. “Papa play with us!”

Aoba tilted his head to the side. “Play what?”

“Hide-and-seek,” Noiz answered, and with a smirk that instantly sent heat rushing to Aoba’s face, he added, “It’s our turn to hide.”

“Okay!” Emmi ran to the nearest wall, clapped her hands over her eyes, and started counting. Noiz took Aoba by the hand and led him to the guest room at the end of the hallway. He guided them to the large walk-in closet hidden within the darkened room and quietly shut the door close. Noiz listened closely and caught the sound of Emmi reaching the number ten then making up numbers like “fiveteen” and “eleventy.”

From behind him, Aoba had already initiated their own, private little game; Noiz felt soft lips press against the nape of his neck as a pair of arms simultaneously squeezed him around his middle. Noiz turned and the both of them pressed forward at the same time, their mouths meeting halfway. Aoba quietly moaned, the sound of it thankfully muffled by their kiss. Noiz maneuvered them away from the door and towards the wall, stopping only once Aoba’s back was lightly pressed against it. Aoba’s hands crawled up Noiz’s back and made a mess of his hair, grabbing a fistful of it and sharply tugging until Noiz drew away with a hiss. A second later, Noiz leaned back down to devour Aoba’s lips in another kiss. Noiz’s fingers snuck underneath the thin fabric of Aoba’s shirt, causing Aoba to shiver at the contact.

Just when Noiz considered taking the risk of slipping his hand underneath the hem of Aoba’s shorts, the door loudly creaked open behind him. Aoba hastily shoved Noiz away from him, the force of the push causing Noiz to stumble and smack his head against the shelf on the opposite wall.

“Found you!” Emmi said and jumped up-and-down in excitement, innocently unmindful of her parents’ disheveled appearances.

“Ow,” Noiz said as he gingerly rubbed the sore spot where he had bumped his head.

“Okay, Emmi hide now!”

Before she had the chance to turn and run away, Aoba said, “Emmi, how about you let Daddy and I get another chance to hide?”

Emmi blinked. “Why?”

Aoba paused for a second, then said, “Daddy and I aren’t very good at finding hiding places, so we want to practice a little more.”

Emmi stared at the ground and furrowed her brows, her brain working at its fullest to consider Aoba’s proposal. Then her face brightened into a smile. “Okay!”

She ran back into the hallway to restart her counting. This time, Aoba and Noiz hid in one of the closets on the first floor; it was roomier, and more importantly, took a little longer to get to.


	6. fourteen

Noiz double-checked the address on his coil’s GPS as he turned into the driveway of a small one-story home. Emmi had visited her new friend’s house after school that day and Noiz was to pick her up on his way home from work. Emmi had just begun attending the local private high school a couple months prior. The school had a reputation for having mostly wealthy students, so Noiz was surprised to find that his daughter’s friend seemed to come from a more modest background.

Noiz made his way along the short paved path from the driveway to the front door, hesitating for a moment before ringing the doorbell. The door opened just wide enough for an unfamiliar face to peek through the gap.

“Can I help you…?” the stranger asked. She looked to be just a few years younger than Noiz and had a youthful, kind-looking face marred only by a slight crease between her brows.

Deciding to cut straight to the point, Noiz answered her question with one of his own. “I was told my daughter Emmi was here?”

Her face relaxed into a more welcoming expression. “Are you… Noiz?” She pulled the door further back, allowing enough space for Noiz to step into the house. “Emmi and Cathrin are visiting another friend a few houses away, but they should be returning soon. Please feel free to make yourself comfortable in the meantime.”

“No, that’s-” Noiz attempted to gently turn down the offer, but before he had a chance to refuse, she had already begun ushering him into the house. She led him to the kitchenette and gestured for him to sit at the small dining table at the corner.

“Would you like something to drink?” she asked, opening the refrigerator door. “Though there are currently no alcoholic beverages, I’m afraid.”

“Just water is fine,” Noiz replied. As she poured him his drink, Noiz discreetly glanced around the house. The kitchenette was connected to a cozy living room area. There was a hallway off to the side that presumably led to the bathroom and bedrooms. The walls of the living room were decorated with framed photographs, most of which were portraits of Cathrin at various ages. Noiz noted that the mother appeared to be the only parent featured in any of the photos.

“I’m glad I finally have the chance to meet you,” the woman said as she set the glass of ice water down on the placemat in front of him. “I’ve met Aoba several times in the past, though only briefly. Emmi mentions the both of you quite often.”

Noiz hummed in response and quietly sipped his water. Despite his subdued reaction, he was actually quite happy to hear that his daughter spoke so well of Aoba and him. She had grown increasingly detached from them over the past couple years, and despite Aoba’s constant reassurances that Emmi’s waning dependence on the two of them was normal, healthy even, Noiz couldn’t help but feel a little… lonely at times.

The woman’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “I’m glad Cathrin made a good friend so early on. Emmi is such a smart, friendly girl. I can tell she had a very happy childhood.”

Warmth crept into his cheeks. “Thank you,” he murmured, embarrassed. For some reason, compliments towards his daughter always made him flustered in a way that direct compliments never did.

“Of course, I like to think Cathrin is turning out pretty well herself,” the woman added with a soft laugh. “It was difficult in the past, getting by with just the two of us. But we parents become so accustomed to making sacrifices for our kids, don’t we?” Her expression remained relaxed, but the tone of her voice revealed the barest hint of untold hardships.

For a long moment, Noiz simply stared down at his glass in silence, watching as the occasional disturbance caused small ripples to form across the water’s surface. Then on a sudden impulse, he said, “I hated my parents.”

The woman’s expression swiftly shifted to one of alarm. Noiz hastily strung together an explanation for his abrupt confession. “I mean, I… I didn’t get along with them. I was a problem child, and my parents gave up on me pretty early on.” Noiz swallowed, the tightness of his throat making the simple reflex suddenly rather difficult. He wasn’t sure why he was saying all this to a person he had just met, but the words continued tumbling out regardless. “That’s why for Emmi, I just… I wanted for things to be better for her. Better than they were for me.”

Noiz fell quiet then, his gaze falling back down to his glass. He had never been very good at expressing his more complex feelings.

“I know what you mean.” Noiz glanced back up and saw that the woman was smiling at him once more. Before she had the opportunity to elaborate, the front door suddenly burst open, and a very familiar voice filtered in through the newly-formed gap.

“I don’t understand why people think the wings on pads are useful. For me, they always get stuck in weird pl-” Emmi caught sight of Noiz and her face instantly became several shades redder.

“Dad!” she squeaked. She paused for one panicked second before hurriedly saying, “Hold on, I have to get my backpack from Cathrin’s room!” and escaping into the hallway at the back, red-faced. Cathrin waved at Noiz and said a quick greeting before tracing Emmi’s steps.

Noiz stood up from the table. “Thank you for the water, Miss…?”

“Just call me Evelyn,” she said, standing from the table as well. “You and Aoba should come by more often! I don’t really know any other parents at Cathrin’s school, and the two of you seem like such nice people…”

Noiz’s lips turned in a wry smirk. It was almost funny in retrospect; when he was a teenager, it was inconceivable that anyone would judge him as a “nice person.”

“I’ll mention it to Aoba,” Noiz replied, which Evelyn took as an affirmative response.

Emmi skipped back into the living room a few moments later, backpack in tow. “Okay, I’m ready to go!”

The two of them said their thank you’s and goodbyes to Evelyn and Cathrin before exiting the house. It was a little chilly outside, so after starting up his car, Noiz waited a minute for it to warm up.

“So. I’m guessing you’ll be buying the wingless pads from now on,” Noiz said, grinning as he turned to look at his daughter.

Emmi’s face instantaneously turned tomato red. “Please erase that from your memory.” She huffed and crossed her arms.

On a whim, Noiz leaned down and lightly kissed her on the forehead. He didn’t think it possible, but Emmi’s face turned even redder. “Daaad,” she whined, gingerly rubbing the spot where his lips had touched.

Noiz chuckled teasingly then finally pulled out from the driveway.


	7. seventeen

“Emmi!”

Emmi automatically turned to address whoever had called her name. She felt heat rise to her cheeks as she spotted a certain redheaded boy jogging towards her from further down the hall. As the distance between them shortened to just a few steps, Emmi averted her eyes in embarrassment, choosing to instead stare into her empty locker.

“Hi Kristof,” Emmi said when he was within earshot. Her eyes flitted towards his face for a brief moment; he wore a wide, boyish grin and his cheeks were practically glowing bright red.

“Hey! I saw you in that play last Friday. I didn’t know you could sing!”

Emmi felt the heat on her face rise in intensity. “I sang in the student choir all throughout middle school. I’m really not all that good though.”

“I thought you did great! Especially during your solo—I couldn’t take my eyes off you.” Kristof froze then let out a loud, slightly nervous-sounding laugh. “I-I mean, you just sang so well and all. I bet everyone else in the audience felt the same way!”

“Oh. Well, I’m glad you liked it.” Even to her own ears, Emmi sounded disappointed. She held back a sigh.

For a few moments, the two of them both fell silent. In the momentary stillness, Emmi risked another glance at Kristof’s face. He was staring hard at the ground, his brows furrowed in deep concentration. He was chewing on his bottom lip, seemingly mulling over something. The blush on his cheeks ruined his otherwise serious expression, and Emmi couldn’t help but crack a small smile at her observation.

Just then, the notebook resting against her arm suddenly slipped out of her loose grasp and landed on the tiled floor with a loud slap. Slightly flustered, Emmi immediately stooped down to retrieve it. Unfortunately, at that exact same moment, Kristof bent down to pick it up for her and their foreheads collided a second later.

“I’m so sorry!” Kristof squeaked. He reflexively covered his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Emmi mumbled, feeling more embarrassed than ever. She hurriedly grabbed her notebook and slammed her locker door shut as she attempted to make a quick escape.

She turned back to Kristof and smiled. “Thanks for coming out to see the play. See you around.” She took a step away, but stopped when Kristof suddenly grabbed her by the wrist.

“Hold on.”

Emmi’s eyes lingered on the hand loosely clutching her then returned to Kristof’s face, fixing him with an inquisitive look. His cheeks were impossibly red; for a second, Emmi was worried that he might have a fever.

“W-well, I was wondering…” He cleared his throat and stared her straight in the eyes, causing a wave of goosebumps to travel from Emmi’s neck down her spine. “If you’re not doing anything after school, I have a soccer game today at four. We’re playing one of our main rivals, so the stands might be a little packed. But if you’re interested in going, I’ll definitely save you a seat!”

Emmi’s heart was pounding so hard that its drumming almost seemed to drown out all other sounds. She quickly nodded and in a surprisingly calm voice said, “Sure! I don’t have any club activities today, so I should be able to make it.”

Kristof’s eyes widened, and his smile widened along with it. “Awesome! I’ll make sure to get you a spot in the front row!”

As Kristof excitedly informed her that he would make a paper nametag to mark her seat, Emmi began to notice a numb, tingling sensation in her right hand. Hesitantly, Emmi said, “Umm, Kristof? Sorry, but you’re squeezing me a little too tightly.” She gently tugged her arm for emphasis.

Kristof blinked. He glanced down at his hand, which was still gripping Emmi’s wrist and unwittingly cutting off all circulation in that area, and his jaw dropped in shock. He yelped in alarm and took a full step backwards, jerking his hand away as though he had been burned by a flame. “Sorry! I didn’t realize I was still…” He let the sentence dwindle to nothing then cleared his throat once more.

Looking much more flustered than he had just a few seconds prior, Kristof managed to say, “I’ll see you after school!” then ran in the opposite direction.

From a distance, she heard a friend of Kristof’s stop him mid-jog and say, “That was the lamest thing I’ve ever seen.” Which Kristof responded to by elbowing his friend in the stomach and telling him to shut up.

At the same time, Emmi’s friend Cathrin approached her from across the hallway, where she had been watching the whole exchange from her locker. “You know,” Cathrin said with a wry grin, lightly nudging Emmi on the arm, “If I were you and I had a guy like _that_ stuttering and blushing every time we spoke, I would totally-”

Emmi sighed. “Yeah. I know.”

\----------

Emmi nervously toed the grass as she waited for Kristof at the edge of the field. He and his fellow players were in the midst of celebrating their team’s victory at the field’s center, their joyous whoops and hollers accompanied by the cheers from the crowd.

Upon spotting her, Kristof clapped the backs of his nearest teammates, and then jogged over to her. “Hey there,” he said once he was near, his breath slightly ragged. He grinned. “I’m glad we won today. I would’ve looked pretty bad if I invited you to a game that I ended up losing.”

Emmi laughed and shook her head. “Not at all! You play so well, you would’ve looked good regardless.” As she spoke, her eyes unconsciously wandered down to ogle the beads of sweat trailing down his neck and into the hollow just above his collarbone.

“You really think so?!” Emmi’s eyes snapped back to Kristof’s face. His eyes were wide with delight and his cheeks were already beginning to redden.

Emmi bit her inner lip to keep herself from grinning goofily in response. He truly was too cute.

From behind him, Kristof’s teammates were yelling for him to come back. “Give me a sec!” he shouted back through cupped hands. He turned back to face Emmi and said, “Sorry, gotta change out of the uniform. But thanks for coming to the game!” He spun on his heel until his body was half-turned away from her. “See you in Lit class tomorrow!”

Just as Kristof was about to run back to his team, Emmi took a deep breath and asked, “Are you free right now?”

He froze mid-step. After a long silence, he slowly turned his head, wearing an almost comical look of shock on his face. “Am I… free?” His voice sounded hesitant, as though he were uncertain if he had heard the question right.

Emmi nodded. “The Lit assignment for tomorrow is pretty difficult. It would probably be easier to complete it if we worked on it together. And my house is just a fifteen-minute walk away…” She trailed off, hoping the question asked itself. Her fingers anxiously played with the hem of her shirt as she awaited his reply.

She ended up not waiting very long at all—the next second, Kristof was wearing the widest, happiest grin she had ever seen. “Y-Yeah! I’m definitely available! Just give me a minute to change, okay?” He did a backwards-run towards the center of the field, waving at her all the while. “I’ll be back! Don’t move from that spot!”

Emmi chuckled and waved in return, a pleasant warmth spreading through her chest. Once Kristof was out of sight, Emmi grabbed her phone from her backpack and texted to her parents that she would be bringing over a friend from school. After a moment of consideration, she decided to add an extra line in her message to Noiz:

_Dad, PLEASE be nice and PLEASE don’t do anything embarrassing._

\----------

After receiving a very suspicious text message from Emmi, Noiz returned from work a little earlier than usual only to find that she had invited a stranger—a _boy_ —into their home.

“Dad, this is Kristof.” Emmi gestured at the redhead sitting opposite from her at the coffee table, who then stood up and greeted Noiz with a stiff handshake.

When he lowered himself back down onto the floor, Kristof’s fingers accidentally brushed against the back of Emmi’s hand, which was innocently resting on the tabletop. He immediately tugged his arm away and mumbled an apology, shyly averting his gaze as he did so. Noiz’s eyes narrowed when he saw an unmistakable blush color Kristof’s cheeks. He also noted that Kristof was fairly good-looking for a boy his age and that he looked to be in peak physical condition, which for some reason only aggravated Noiz even further.

He decided then and there that it was his duty as a father to keep an eye on this suspicious boy. He grabbed the newspaper lying next to Emmi and Kristof’s notebooks and plopped himself down on the sofa that was conveniently positioned just a few feet behind Kristof. Noiz saw the boy visibly tense in response to his seating choice, causing Noiz’s lips to curve into a smug little smile.

At the other end of the coffee table, Emmi wore a similar expression—but Noiz knew his daughter’s forced smile only masked her barely-contained fury. “Dad,” she said with the barest hint of warning to her voice, “Pa’s getting dinner ready in the kitchen. Wouldn’t you rather read your newspaper there?”

“I’m fine here,” Noiz tersely replied as he lazily flipped through the pages of his paper. For a moment, Emmi’s irritation leaked onto her face, a small crease forming between her brows. She opened her mouth to respond, but then shut it again the next second, choosing to glare down at her notes instead.

Silence reigned for the next several minutes, interrupted only by the quiet crinkle of turned pages and the occasional scratch of lead on paper. Of the three of them, Kristof seemed the most stressed of all; since Noiz had seated himself behind him, he hadn’t moved at all. At one point, Aoba popped in to check up on all of them.

 “Are you all doing okay? You’re not hungry, are you?” Aoba’s eyes lingered on their guest.

Realizing that the question was directed towards him, Kristof suddenly became reanimated and forced out a nervous laugh. “No, I’m fine. I ate a big lunch today.” The moment he finished speaking, his stomach rumbled loudly. Emmi laughed as Kristof’s eyes fell to the floor in embarrassment. “Maybe I’m a little hungry,” he admitted.

“I’ll get you some snacks,” Aoba said with a smile. A minute later, he returned from the kitchen with a plate of pretzels and an unopened box of Kinder chocolate bars, the latter of which Kristof and Emmi immediately tore into. After setting the food on the table, Aoba snuck a glance at Noiz, who was openly glaring at the back of Kristof’s head.

Sensing Aoba’s eyes on him, Noiz met his husband’s gaze. Aoba was sending him a very particular look, one that could only be described as equal parts worry, exasperation, and amusement. “Behave yourselves,” Aoba said before exiting the room, directing the message at Noiz more than the kids.

The tension in the room eased after Aoba’s visit, enough that Kristof and Emmi began casually chatting with each other while studying. The two of them quickly devoured the chocolates within the space of a half hour and only moved onto the pretzels once every last piece of candy had been unwrapped and eaten. Emmi left to go to the bathroom shortly afterwards, but not before pointedly sending Noiz a look of warning.

Once he knew that Emmi was out of earshot, Noiz folded his newspaper and simply said, “Oi.”

Kristof jumped at the sound of his voice. He hastily spun around to face Noiz. “Yes, sir!” he answered with the bearing of a soldier to his general.

Noiz quirked an eyebrow at his overly-reverent speech, but said nothing to relax him. Instead, he asked, “How old are you?”

“Seventeen,” he replied without a moment’s hesitation.

Noiz paused to consider his next question. Knowing he was short on time, he decided to cut straight to the point. “How long have you had your eyes on my daughter?”

All the blood drained from Kristof’s face. For a second, Noiz thought the boy might flee the house in terror, but contrary to his expectations, he bravely chose to answer the question. “I’ve liked her for the past couple months now,” he began, his hands fidgeting anxiously, “The first time I ever really spoke to her was when our Lit teacher paired us up for a project. We were walking to the library to work on it after school and in the hallway, we saw one of the underclassmen getting bullied by a couple kids from our grade. I didn’t want to get involved, so I was planning to just ignore them. But before I could stop her, Emmi walked right up to them and told the bullies off. And one of the bullies tried to push her away, but Emmi twisted his hand behind his back then kicked him in the back of his knees. It was amazing!”

Kristof’s face lit up at the memory, and Noiz’s eyes widened at his recollection of it. It was the first he had ever heard of Emmi attacking someone at school; Aoba had taught her plenty of self-defense moves over the years, but Noiz never thought she would actually have reason to use them.

With a smirk, Noiz asked, “So you like Emmi because she can beat you up if you make her angry? Are you a masochist?”

“Of course not!” Kristof blurted, face flushed. He twiddled his thumbs as he stopped to consider his words. After a long pause, he finally continued, “She’s not just physically strong. She’s strong in a lot of other ways too. She sticks up for what she believes in and does what she thinks is right even when everyone else just stays quiet. And from what I’ve seen, she’s really kind even to people who have done unkind things. Like, she actually forgave the bullies after they apologized. I guess I feel like there’s a lot to admire in her…”

He broke eye contact with Noiz and opted to stare down at his hands instead. With no one to observe him, Noiz allowed his lips to turn upwards in a private smile as he was hit with the realization that all the qualities Kristof had just listed were the same qualities that ultimately made him fall for Aoba all those years ago. The smile fell once Kristof timidly glanced back up at him.

“You don’t have to worry, though,” Kristof said with a pitiful sigh, “Emmi doesn’t know how I feel about her. I haven’t told her.”

Noiz highly doubted that Emmi was unaware of the boy’s crush. It was pretty damn obvious.

The opportunity for Noiz to tell him as much disappeared once the both of them heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Kristof spun around until he was facing the table once more and preoccupied himself with his notes. Likewise, by the time Emmi stepped into the room, Noiz had already reopened his newspaper and was pretending to read the Entertainment section. She seemed to sense that the room’s atmosphere had lightened in the short time that she was gone and spoke with Kristof even more freely than before.

The two of them finished their assignments a short while later and Kristof then announced that he needed to return to his own house soon. When Noiz offered to drive Kristof, Emmi gaped at him in shock before grinning with delight. He ended up declining the offer, claiming that it wouldn’t take too long for him to get to his house by foot.

Once Kristof had safely exited their premises, Emmi turned to Noiz and slitted her eyes at him in suspicion. “So what exactly did you do to him while I was gone?”

Noiz smiled and cryptically replied, “I only did what you told me to do.”

“I didn’t tell you to do anything.”

“Yes, you did. You told me to be nice, so I was.”

Emmi blinked, and then let out an annoyed huff. Noiz just laughed and walked towards the kitchen. “Come on. Dinner’s getting cold.”

\----------

 After dinner, Emmi excused herself to go take a shower as Noiz and Aoba washed the dishes. “So…” Aoba said as he rinsed the suds off a plate, “What do you think of him?”

Noiz didn’t waste even a single second to consider his response. “I don’t like him,” he answered immediately.

Aoba sighed. “I figured as much.”

“That said,” Noiz continued after a deliberate pause, “I don’t think it really matters how I feel about him. It’s Emmi’s decision in the end.”

Aoba’s face broke into a smile. He playfully bumped Noiz with a swing of his hips and teased, “That’s very mature of you.”

“Of course,” Noiz said in a pseudo-indignant tone. “I’m an adult, after all.”

“Yeah, right. We both know that you’ll always be a perverted brat at heart.” Aoba reached up with a wet, soapy hand and pinched him on the cheek. His smug smile faltered when Noiz suddenly grabbed him by the wrist. The next second, Noiz swept Aoba off his feet and carried him bridal-style across the kitchen towards the second floor staircase.

With a suggestive lift of his brow, Noiz said, “Let’s test out just how much of a perverted brat I really am.”

“Emmi’s going to hear us,” Aoba said in a hushed voice, though he circled his arms around Noiz’s neck despite his hesitation.

“It’s fine. We’ve still got at least a good fifteen minutes before she gets out of the shower.”

“Fifteen minutes?!” Aoba squawked in protest, but at that point, Noiz had already carried him to the top of the staircase. Aoba sighed in defeat. “Hands off the moment we hear the bathroom door open, okay?”

Noiz grinned. “Challenge accepted.”


End file.
